Bank Panics and Media Freedom during the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis: Evidence from Russian Regions

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to find out whether it is possible to prevent the bank runs in times of a crisis, if the media, being under government control, do not inform people about the unstable economic situation. Such a measure being temporary and used only in times of crisis, can prevent a sharp decline in retail deposits, which in turn could cause the collapse of the banking system and worsen the consequences of the crisis. We use the data from 79 regions of Russia for 2001-2010. The results show that during the 2008-2009 crisis in the regions where the freedom of the media is controlled to a greater extent, the reduction in retail deposit growth was much less severe. Our next hypothesis was that this effect can vary depending on the depositor ability to interpret the facts reported in the press, as well as the bank risks in the region. Our results indicate that the most dramatic reduction in the growth rate of retail deposits during the crisis was observed in regions where investors demonstrate high levels of financial literacy, banks show high levels of credit risk, and media freedom is limited to the least extent.